Obama aide hints at tax evasion in challenge to Romney to release records

The Obama campaign has called on Mitt Romney to release years of tax returns to prove he did not break the law following claims that the Republican presidential candidate held secret accounts in foreign tax havens.

Robert Gibbs, the president's former spokesman and now a top campaign adviser, said on CNN that "nobody knows" whether Romney committed tax evasion after Vanity Fair reported that he kept parts of his multimillion dollar fortune in more than a dozen entities in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland.

Vanity Fair reported that among other things Romney parked some of his money in a Bermuda corporation entirely owned by him which he transferred to his wife's name the day before he became Massachusetts's governor and then failed to list it on financial disclosure forms.

-snip-

The Obama aide continued: "Nobody knows why he has a corporation in Bermuda, why he failed to disclose that on seven different financial disclosures, why he transferred it to someone else's purview the day before he became governor of Massachusetts.

1. Romney is the first Presidential candidate with secret offshore bank accounts

I think I heard that on Face The Nation today.

Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, also referenced a new article in Vanity Fair that provided insight into Romney's offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland - countries popular among the wealthy for secrecy and tax protections.

6. Sadly, I Have To Agree

The 2010 tax return is all we will see before the election. The 2011 estimate he released isn't worth the paper it is written on because when he filed for an extension he indicated he expects a $200,000 refund. That means there are major revisions on the 2011 tax return that we don't currently know about. At a 15% effective tax rate that amounts to $1.333 million in reductions in income/increase in expenses or a full 6% adjustment in his return. In other words, it is far more serious than a rounding error so what is he hiding in 2011.

9. Maybe Mitt also committed voter fraud. n/t

10. I think you might be correct

from Brad Blog

"To date, there has been no legitimate explanation for Mitt Romney having cast a vote in the January 2010 Special Election for the U.S. Senate between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. At the time of his vote (which he has admitted doing) he owned no house in MA, and yet he was registered to vote from the address of his son's unfinished basement in Belmont, MA.".....

11. Watch him implode!

When Mitt's father ran for president in 1968, he released 12 years of tax returns. He stated “one year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show.” Mitt has released one year, and that revealed he had declared accounts in Bermuda, The Cayman Islands and Switzerland. All countries that are tax havens and have secrecy laws to protect depositors. Not illegal, but highly suspect. Why not Germany, France or Italy? He may and I repeat may release a later year tax return, but he can't release a previous year. You see Mitt doesn't like to pay taxes. When he worked for Bain, they lobbied for the tax break that allows them to pay 15% on carried interest. When they wanted to close the loophole, Bain spent millions again on lobbying. When he was on the board of directors of Marriott, he was Audit Chairman. He reduced their tax rate to 6.8% through offshore tax dodges and sleazy loopholes. Enough of this, the real story starts below.
In 2009 the IRS had a tax amnesty for people that had money in undeclared Swiss bank accounts. The IRS was given a list of 4,500 names, and let the financial world know they were going to go after these people. More than 30,000 people came forward and the government collected 2.7 billion in taxes and penalties. The company that came forward with these names was UBS, the same company that Mitt has his "declared" account with. Some believe up to 10 trillion dollars are stashed in tax havens by Americans. His staff was sweating bullets in January when he released his tax release. Now that there are calls for him to release his previous tax returns, they are back in panic mode. They have no way to explain the mysterious appearing accounts and the sudden surge in assets. If he does release them, look for white out and a copy of Photo Shop at his campaign office.

19. just like your non-agenda, huh?

15. Hmmm

I've been around here a long long time and this looks very suspicious...hey you guys have heard about people being PAID (by GOP operatives) to invade liberal message boards and sites and actually get PAID to post anti-dem stuff? I'm not saying (or accusing) that this is a spy but, it does look suspicious to me.

17. they don't go unnoticed, SoFlaJet

20. Are you insinuating that of me? Please. I've been here for years and want to see Obama win. I

just think this is an accusation that is not as important as pointing out major differences. Wow, to be accused of being a paid gop operative? I don't know if I should laugh or be insulted. Ridiculous. We're on the same side here. I just would rather point out major, major differences in what the two candidates stand for, is all.

Speculate and get spun all you want. I'm going to just focus on the major differences between the candidates, and there are many that make Obama my candidate that don't include speculation.